What is the Best IP address to Ping to Test my Internet Connection ?

Sometimes you just need an IP address to be check your internet connection. My current favourite IP address is to use the Google DNS servers. which are the IPv4 addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

I have a favourite IP address to ping in Australia at 139.130.4.5 which is the primary name server for the largest carrier in Australia. (And reminds me that latency of 500 milliseconds is normal for some people).

I’ve also used the servers at OpenDNS 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. OpenDNS provides a secure and safe DNS service which I recommend that you check out for home and commercial use. Norton Connectsafe also have secure DNS servers for home users at 198.153.192.1 and 198.153.194.2 that respond to ICMP requests.

DNSResolvers.com is another DNS servers 205.210.42.205 and 64.68.200.200 as a free service from EasyDNS.

The most likely problem is that your Internet connection is down or broken. It’s also possible that Internet router or firewall is blocking ping packets. Many firewalls do block ping packets by default so this isn’t the only test you should do.

Let me know if you have any other favourite places that might be worth adding to the list.

About Greg Ferro

Human Infrastructure for Data Networks. 25 year survivor of Corporate IT in many verticals, tens of employers working on a wide range of networking solutions and products.

Host of the Packet Pushers Podcast on data networking at http://packetpushers.net- now the largest networking podcast on the Internet.

Hi, serious question here. Is it actually all right to ping the Telstra IP address to test our internet connection? My ISP is not Telstra. If I ping 139.130.4.5. , am I breaking any law? What are the consequences?